Former Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres suffered a stroke on Tuesday, according to a statement from his office.
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“After 24 hours of intensive treatment of Mr. Peres, I can say that despite the fact that he is in serious but stable condition, there is a certain improvement”, Kreiss was quoted as saying by Israel National News.
Peres’ office later said that his doctors have chose to intubate him and put him under sedation in order to further evaluate his condition and make it easier to treat him.
Despite his advanced age Peres worked unabatedly for reaching an understanding between Israel and Palestiians through his Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv, among other organizations.
Earlier Wednesday, Walden warned that Peres had likely suffered permanent damage from the Tuesday evening stroke.
He joined the Zionist struggle in the 1940s and while hitchhiking met David Ben-Gurion, who would become Israel’s first prime minister. Dr. Shlomi Matezsky, one of the doctors treating Peres, told Channel 2 TV that Peres had regained consciousness and was on a respirator.
Over a seven-decade career, he has held virtually every senior political office, including three stints as prime minister and extended terms as foreign, defence and finance minister.
Tuesday’s stroke is the latest in a series of heart-related medical conditions which have resulted in Peres’ hospitalization this year. “I remain optimistic although these are not simple hours”, Mr Peres’s son, Chemi, said.
Peres, Israel’s elder statesman, was an architect of a 1993 interim peace deal with the Palestinians known as the Oslo Accords, for which he won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize.
He only retired in 2014, having completed his seven year term as the 9 President of the Jewish State.
When leaving hospital after his heart treatment in January, then 92-year-old Peres told reporters he was “so happy to return to work, that was the whole goal of this operation”.
The chief rabbis of Israel have called on the public to pray for Mr Peres’ recovery. Two weeks later he was hospitalized again following a minor irregularity in his heartbeat.
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The last of Israel’s founding fathers, Peres has held almost every major office in the country, including prime minister twice and president, a mostly ceremonially post, fom 2007 to 2014. “The Prime Minister conveyed the prayers of the entire nation for a quick recovery”, said a statement released by his office.
